Establishment of In Vitro Culture System Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural and Non-Neural Cells

Science Center, Bent Corridor

For many years, neuroscientists have been limited in their studies of CNS disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia, by a lack of live human brain cells. However, Kristen Brennand’s laboratory at Mount Sinai’s School of Medicine circumvents this obstacle by reprogramming skin cells from patients with or without schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease into stem cells, and then differentiating those stem cells into various brain cells. Then, the genetics, morphology, and chemistry of those cells can be studied. This summer, I interned with Julia TCW, a postdoctoral fellow in Brennand lab, from whom I learned the following techniques. (In the poster, my abstract is followed by an introduction into what the lab does and then some techniques I learned in the lab.)